Let Your Jaw Drop While Reading the Greatest Slap in the Face to Photographers

Last Updated on 10/01/2020 by Chris Gampat

We’re pretty shocked at this rights grab and overall slap in the face to photographers.

One day in my email, I found an ad served to me by Google. It was for photographers with no experience needed. What it eventually showed was a giant rights grab.

What you’re not seeing here is the fact that photographers often get paid infinitesimal rates for gigs like these. It’s essentially you just creating more and more content for them; they market it out and pay you a small fee. That’s how agencies really work, but this is from a company called Great Escape Publishing.

Ads like this prey on those who are just starting out and hungry to get into the industry without networking. But the truth is that you actually need to go out and network; make connections with people to actually sell your images, your services, your art, etc.

Here’s what a few of us had to say…

Here are my $0.02 on this. Get rich quick schemes like this have been around since the dawn of civilization, praying on the weak and uneducated. They have become especially prevalent as of late, praying upon the “influencer” mindset that social media has helped foster. In the photography world, many new photographers focus solely on engagement numbers and being famous rather than honing their craft and training their eye. Instead of developing their own voice and creating a body of work around it, they jump from one trend to another, hoping to cash in on the latest trend. Ads like this only worsen the problem.

Once you click on the ad, you’re greeted with a headline that reads, “Calling All Wanna-Be Photographers…” This is a blatant slap in the face that diminishes the dedication genuine photographers put into their craft, and shows how little regard this company has for this industry in general. I could go on, but if that headline doesn’t set off the alarm bells for you, you’ve probably drank too much of that influencer koolaid already.

Paul Ip – Reviews Editor

My thought on this is, I find it insulting for photographers of any genre or expertise level. You can’t call someone a “wannabe photographer” and downplay the craft, and not totally offend them; all the more hire them to do work for you.

Joy Asto – News Editor

“This is one giant way of saying “let’s undercut photographers who make a living off their photography,” as if the industry isnt being lowballed enough.”

Mark Beckenbach – Copy Editor